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Florida Kerry supporters meet for group therapy
Boca Raton News ^
| December 2, 2004
| Sean Salai
Posted on 12/02/2004 4:14:00 PM PST by No One Special
Edited on 12/06/2004 6:05:12 PM PST by Admin Moderator.
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To: No One Special
Koolaid was served as refreshments.
2
posted on
12/02/2004 4:15:32 PM PST
by
exnavy
To: No One Special
Finish the joke:
Twenty Kerry supporters go to a therapist.....
To: No One Special
the Eagles song "get over it" comes to mind...
4
posted on
12/02/2004 4:16:53 PM PST
by
Rakkasan1
(Justice of the Piece: Hope IS on the way...)
To: No One Special
I was never able to understand why the DemonRATS wanted to close the insane asylums throughout the United States in the early 1980s. Now I know. They wanted more people who would vote for the DIMs.
To: No One Special
Mark Levin just read this (between laughs) on his WABC radio show...
6
posted on
12/02/2004 4:17:44 PM PST
by
pookie18
(Clinton Happens!)
To: No One Special
I can sympathize. Anyone who voted for Kerry needs serious psychological help.
7
posted on
12/02/2004 4:17:47 PM PST
by
EagleUSA
To: EagleUSA
For real. You'd have to be crazy to vote for him.
To: No One Special
"what mental health counselors have dubbed Post Election Selection Trauma (PEST). If I had a cardboard cutout of President Bush, and these people wanted to throw darts at it, I would let them do it,
This is hilarious. It sounds like fiction, especially the appropriate acronym PEST. I hope this is made into a TV movie starring mike farrell and cher.
To: RedBloodedAmerican; MinuteGal; EllaMinnow
10
posted on
12/02/2004 4:21:44 PM PST
by
Howlin
(W, Still the President)
To: gov_bean_ counter
Florida Kerry supporters meet for group therapy |
Voters shout epithets at President Bush during first PEST counseling session |
|
Published Thursday, December 2, 2004 at 6:00 pm |
by Sean Salai
Twenty John Kerry supporters met for their first group therapy session in
South Florida Thursday, screaming epithets at President Bush as they shared
their emotions with licensed mental health counselors.
The first of several free noontime therapy sessions at the American Health
Association in Boca Raton was designed to treat what mental health
counselors have dubbed Post Election Selection Trauma (PEST).
If I had a cardboard cutout of President Bush, and these people wanted to
throw darts at it, I would let them do it, Robert J. Gordon, AHA executive
director, told the Boca News after the session. Its no joke. People with
PEST were traumatized by the election. If you even mention religion, their
faces turn blister-red as they shout at Bush.
Although the meeting was closed to the press, AHA therapists obtained
permission from participants to provide an anonymous transcript to the Boca
Raton News.
Im scared, said one man. Democracy is at stake and nobody is rising to
protest this president.
I want to be a patriot, but its impossible to be a patriot in an immoral
war, said another participant, a woman. Bush is breaking up marriages and
dividing families by keeping our troops in Iraq.
Gordon said the participants also granted reluctant permission to open up
next Thursdays meeting to the general press. Reporters will be forbidden
from taking photographs or using the real names of patients.
The media outlets, especially Rush Limbaugh and his ilk on talk radio,
scare our patients to death, said Gordon, facilitator for the meetings.
More than anything else, people with PEST tremble physically.
Gordon said the Kerry supporters in therapy are predominantly Jewish and
older than 50. Most are registered independents and all live in Palm Beach
County.
We mostly let them vent during the first session, Gordon said. By the
third session, well be doing some meditation exercises to aid some of their
symptoms. We may use visualization and some techniques designed for bipolar
disease and other mental disorders. That might help them adjust to reality.
According to AHA officials, symptoms of PEST are similar to post-traumatic
stress disorder. They include nightmares, sleeplessness, hostility,
listlessness, and emotional outbursts including threats to leave the
country.
Theres an overall sense of emotional helplessness and abandonment, said
Sheila Cooperman, a licensed AHA psychotherapist from Delray Beach. In
psychology, we call it learned helplessness. After you zap a caged dog
twice, he stops moving because he knows there is no place to go. Thats what
happened with these Kerry voters. Theyve been zapped so many times that
theyre on the verge of giving up on politics.
Cooperman, also a practicing psychic, added, One person today said he
thinks the country is now run by fascists. Another felt personally
threatened by the presidents love for big business. Many believe Bush is
going to draft their grandchildren. The anxiety may not affect them every
day, but it affects their energy level.
An additional 30 people are signed up for two other AHA election support
groups, which will meet for the remainder of the year and possibly beyond.
Gordon said his patients emotional problems typically started with the
hanging chad debacle of 2000.
First, they need to realize theyre not going to overturn the 2004
election, Gordon said. They have to live with it. The problem is they have
no faith because they think the religious right has hijacked the political
system. We try to tell them there is still an election in 2008. You cant
just give up and be apathetic.
The AHA, using a holistic approach to health that has been mocked as new age
voodoo by some national talk show hosts, has stressed to patients that their
post-election emotions are normal and deserve to be taken seriously.
These people talk about the 2000 election being stolen, Gordon said. They
talk about Theresa LePore and the Ohio recount. They feel its the Right
House, not the White House. They feel the world is not safe with George W.
Bush as president. They spewed out a lot of anger. They are angry at the
Democratic Party for being aimless and leaderless. They have a right to
these feelings.
The Boca Raton News first reported on Nov. 9 that depressed Florida Kerry
supporters were seeking trauma therapy in the wake of the Nov. 2
presidential election. One Boca psychologist alone, Douglas Schooler,
eventually treated 20 Kerry voters with intense hypnotherapy for a sliding
fee.
The trauma specialist, whose bills were covered by clients insurance
companies, was later accused by some colleagues of unethically cashing in
on the misery of Kerry voters. In interviews with the Boca News, Schooler
said many of the Kerry supporters had visited him for severe mental problems
prior to the election.
Unlike Schooler, the AHA is a registered Florida non-profit and its
therapists do not charge for sessions. Conservative talk show hosts Sean
Hannity and Rush Limbaugh recently offered their own free therapy, irking
the AHA counselors.
Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@bocanews.com or 561-893-6427.
11
posted on
12/02/2004 4:23:17 PM PST
by
Howlin
(W, Still the President)
To: No One Special
I am 'physically shaking' with laughter at these morons.
LOL! What a pile of doofuses!
12
posted on
12/02/2004 4:23:42 PM PST
by
headsonpikes
(Another five-fingered Canadian... ;^))
To: All
Sorry about the formatting everybody. There actually are paragraphs at the link but they don't take to well to cut and paste.
To: No One Special
I am 'physically shaking' with laughter at these morons.
LOL! What a pile of doofuses!
14
posted on
12/02/2004 4:24:32 PM PST
by
headsonpikes
(Another five-fingered Canadian... ;^))
To: No One Special
Oh for petes sake. Catering to a bunch of mentally deficient pygmies who are upset because reality doesn't work their way. Whats next? Condoms for wildlife? Wait, that's another thread.
15
posted on
12/02/2004 4:25:46 PM PST
by
crazyhorse691
(We won. We don't need to be forgiving. Let the heads roll!!!!!!!!!)
To: Rakkasan1
"the Eagles song "get over it" comes to mind..."
To: Rakkasan1
"the Eagles song "get over it" comes to mind..." I don't know, the "Hotel Kalifornia" seems also fitting. Sorry about the italics
To: headsonpikes
In psychology, we call it learned helplessness.Come on, say it with me: "Democrats!"
18
posted on
12/02/2004 4:27:36 PM PST
by
Howlin
(W, Still the President)
To: No One Special
I suppose when your hair turns blue, you will believe anything that Wexler yells into your deaf ears.
To: No One Special
These people would save a lot of money and embarrassment if they instead spent their time getting informed! They are going in meltdowns because they have bought into whacked out lib garbage.
They were nuts long before the election.
20
posted on
12/02/2004 4:28:23 PM PST
by
KJC1
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